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Top animal stories of 2011

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Hickory, who made history as the first-ever Scottish Deerhound to win 'Best in Show' at the Westminster Dog Show, plays with her puppies in Flint Hill, Va., on Dec. 1. Hickory, whose full name is Grand Champion Foxcliffe Hickory Wind, had her first litter of nine puppies on Oct. 9. The puppies were sired by Huntly (American and Canadian Champion Fernhill Huntly D'LUX) of Ontario, Canada. Hyungwon Kang/Reuters

Mark Pavlik plays with Daniel, who is better known as the 'Miracle Dog,' moments after arriving home from work in Rochelle Park, N.J., on Oct. 28. The stray beagle mix, who cheated death in an Alabama dog pound's gas chamber, is being fostered by the Pavliks while a permanent home is found for him. The animal walked out unscathed from the carbon monoxide administered by the Animal Control Department in Florence, Ala., on Oct. 3. Julio Cortez/AP/File

Workers are shown holding a nearly 16-foot long Burmese python that was captured and killed in Everglades National Park, Fla., on Oct. 27. The python had recently consumed a 76-lb. adult female deer. The reptile was one of the largest ever found in South Florida. South Florida Water Management District/AP/File

Shown is one of three leopards that were captured by authorities a day after their owner released dozens of wild animals and then killed himself near Zanesville, Ohio, on Oct. 18. Sheriff's deputies shot and killed 48 of the animals, including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, two grizzly bears, a baboon, a wolf, and three mountain lions. Six of the released animals – three leopards, a bear, and two monkeys – were captured and taken to the Columbus Zoo. Grahm S. Jones/Columbus Zoo and Aquarium/AP/File

Sausage, a stray dog, barks at a group of riot policemen who are struggling to avoid a gasoline bomb thrown by protesters during a demonstration in Athens on Oct. 5. Sausage the riot dog is an amiable reddish mongrel resident of Syntagma Square in central Athens, who doesn't mind if you show up for a day of mayhem as long as he can join in. For the record: some people call him Kanellos – Cinnamon. Yannis Behrakis/Reuters/File

In September, a cat named Willow (not pictured) resurfaced on the streets of Manhattan five years after she disappeared from her home in Colorado. She was reunited with her owners through the scanning of a microchip that had been implanted in her body. In this photo, Jacob Miller scans a cat for a microchip at the East Valley Animal Shelter in Los Angeles on July 20. Richard Vogel/AP/File

On Sept. 4, Mayor Cox Elorde of Bunawan township, Agusan del Sur Province, southern Philippines, pretends to measure a huge crocodile which was captured by residents and crocodile farm staff along a creek. Elorde said that dozens of villagers and experts ensnared the 21-foot male crocodile after a three-week hunt. It was one of the largest crocodiles to be captured alive in the Philippines in recent years. AP/File

Two separate brown bear attacks (also known as grizzly bears) at Yellowstone National park in July and August of 2011 left two hikers dead. In one case, the bear was a mother defending a perceived threat to her cubs, and the National Park Service opted not to destroy her. Mathieu Belanger/Reuters/File

Captured turtles at New York's Kennedy airport are shown on June 29. About 150 turtles crawled onto the tarmac at the airport in search of beaches on which to lay their eggs, delaying dozens of flights, aviation authorities said. The migration of diamondback terrapin turtles happens every year at Kennedy, which is built on the edge of Jamaica Bay and a federally protected park. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey/AP/File

The New York Times and other United States media have reported that a military canine accompanied Navy SEAL Team Six commandos into a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2 in a raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Shown is a US military handout image from March 1. Manuel J. Martinez/U.S. Air Force/Reuters/File

A recovered Egyptian cobra is displayed at the Bronx Zoo on March 31. The cobra, missing for nearly a week from the zoo, was captured less than 200 feet from its cage to the relief of neighbors and disappointment of 200,000 people following a Twitter feed in its honor. Lured with wood shavings reeking of mice and rats, the poisonous Egyptian cobra was trapped in a dark corner of the Reptile House, its home since it arrived at the zoo in February, zoo officials said. Bronx Zoo/Reuters/File

Knut, the polar bear cub, made his first public appearance at Berlin zoo on March 23, 2007. The world-famous polar bear died suddenly at the age of four on March 19, 2011 to worldwide grief. Herbert Knosowski/AP/File

A girl in isolation for radiation screening looks at her dog through a window in Nihonmatsu, Japan, on March 14, following the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Animals were rescued and also served as rescuers in disasters all over the world in 2011, including earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and wildfires. Yuriko Nakao/Reuters/File

A worker with United States Environmental Services LLC collects dead birds from the back yard of a home in Beebe, Ark., on Jan. 2. Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over the Arkansas town. Several mysterious mass animal deaths occurred in 2011, including cows, starlings, sparrows, turtle doves, anchovies, sardines, and mackerel. Stephen B. Thornton/The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP/File